How to manage your estate in the digital age

With an ever increasing amount of our lives spent and documented online, it is perhaps unsurprising that many companies now offer services that allow you to manage your digital assets, even after you have died. This can include everything from a service that saves all of your passwords in one place, to a system that will send messages to your loved ones after you have passed away.

This idea came from Simon Stewart, who unfortunately lost a large number of documents on a flight back from Australia. Amongst this information was the personal and irreplaceable story of a family member’s emigration to the country many decades before. Unfortunately, the relative had recently died, meaning that a priceless part of his family’s story had been lost forever.

As a result of this personal loss, Stewart set up Lexikin, a ‘digital vault’ in which users can store items such as passwords, usernames and other personal information online. Even the most organised person can leave behind hundreds of papers and files that need to be dealt with after their death, so this software helps eliminate those complications and allows all information to be stored in one place.

In an increasingly digitised world there are a number of new problems that need to be dealt with after your death. For example, what will happen to your social media accounts when you’re gone? Or more importantly, all those irreplaceable photographs and memories?

Lexikin is free to use while you are alive, after which it can be accessed by your Executor who would pay a £100 fee to gain access to the information. It is essentially a ‘one stop shop’ for hosting information and dealing with your digital affairs after your death.

In addition to hosting information, Lexikin provides the facility to leave written or video messages which can be read or viewed after you have died. These can be linked to important milestones from which you will be absent, such as a daughter’s wedding or family birthdays, for example.

What are your opinions on this software? Do you feel that it would be beneficial and helpful to the Executors of the estate?